Missionary Account

Discuss questions around local unit policies for budgeting, reconciling, etc. This forum should not contain specific financial or membership information.
sfraser-p40
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Missionary Account

#1

Post by sfraser-p40 »

Hi All

I have cleaned up the finances of our unit and I think I have a pretty good handle on things now. One of the nagging problems I see is that we have missionary accounts with a balance and the missionaries have long gone. Either moved away or returned. The money from missionary accounts automatically goes to the church each month and a balancing entry is made to account for this. Do these balances for the gone missionaries need to be zeroed. I haven't called the financial help line and wanted to run this by you guys first.

Thanks
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Mikerowaved
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#2

Post by Mikerowaved »

You are describing two different situations, so I will address them separately.

1. A missionary has long since returned, but there is a balance showing under his name in the Ward Missionary fund. In this case, create a transfer to move the balance showing from the missionary's name to the general Ward Missionary fund. This will zero out the missionary's account and you can set it to "inactive" if you desire.

2. The parents of a missionary currently serving have moved out of the Ward, you are still seeing the monthly deduction from CHQ, and your Bishop would like the new Ward to assume responsibility for the missionary. In this case, your Bishop must contact the Bishop of the new Ward and get permission to pass the financial responsibility with an effective date. This date could be retroactive or anytime in the future. Once this is done, simply contact CHQ with the details of the arrangement and they will handle the rest.
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russellhltn
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#3

Post by russellhltn »

Just to add - in the grand scheme of things, there's only the Ward Missionary account. Any subcategories for specific missionaries is just to help the clerk track what's going on. You can do whatever you want in shifting funds between the subcategories as you desire. It only shows up on your computer.

So as far as zeroing out any remaining balances, just do a transfer to another Ward Missionary subcategory or to the main category itself. It's just a computer entry. No checks need to be written.

One thing you can not do is refund any of the amounts. Not even if the missionary returns home early. Once donated to the Ward Missionary Account, that's it. You can fix errors, such as donations to the wrong place, but there are no refunds.

The church should not automatically be pulling any amounts out of your account except for missionaries from your ward who are still in the field. (Although any excess amounts are highly encouraged to be sent out of the unit - usually to the stake where they can either support another missionary or send it to CHQ.)

Hope that helps.
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Mikerowaved
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#4

Post by Mikerowaved »

RussellHltn wrote:The church should not automatically be pulling any amounts out of your account expect for missionaries from your ward who are still in the field.
Just to clarify, if missionaries have changed home wards while out, CHQ will continue to pull from the original home ward unless specifically told otherwise. If for some (rare) reason the new Bishop refuses to take financial responsibility of the missionary, the old ward must continue to do so.
RussellHltn wrote:(Although any excess amounts are highly encouraged to be sent out of the unit - usually to the stake where they can either support another missionary or send it to CHQ.)
Yes, our Stake President recently asked us to return any missionary funds in excess of 3 "reserve" months for each missionary serving. I don't know if this is a church guideline or just one our Stake President came up with, so please don't anyone quote this as church policy. ;)
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aebrown
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#5

Post by aebrown »

Mikerowaved wrote:Our Stake President recently asked us to return any missionary funds in excess of 3 "reserve" months for each missionary serving. I don't know if this is a church guideline or just one our Stake President came up with, so please don't anyone quote this as church policy.

Our stake recently received a letter from President Rasband (of the Presidency of the Seventy) where we were asked to send excess funds in our stake's missionary funds back to the Church. The Church obviously knows how many missionaries are serving from our stake, and they also can add up the sum of the Ward Missionary accounts in all the wards and the stake (yes, there is a Ward Missionary account at the stake level).

The letter specifically mentioned the three months of reserve per missionary, and went on to calculate the total amount of that reserve for our stake. It then noted the difference between our stake's total Ward Missionary funds and that reserve amount and requested that we send in the difference (an amount that was specified to the penny).

Now we do have some families that "prepay" for a mission -- for tax purposes they choose to pay for all or a significant portion of the mission at the beginning of the mission. We researched what portion of the funds were prepays, and used the three month figure for all other missionaries. The stake collected the remaining excess from each ward and then sent the balance in to the Church.

The letter counseled us to not retain excess funds in our stake, because the funds can be used to support missionaries throughout the world who are in need. Wise counsel!
lajackson
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#6

Post by lajackson »

Mikerowaved wrote:Yes, our Stake President recently asked us to return any missionary funds in excess of 3 "reserve" months for each missionary serving.
Three months is the suggested amount in every letter I have seen. As with Alan, our stake expects that wards will also retain amounts that have been prepaid for a longer period, as long as the missionary is still serving.

One Sunday I had a young man ask me how much a mission would cost. I figured 24 times the going monthly amount, and he wrote a check for the entire amount. He reported to the Missionary Training Center that Wednesday.

Our ward did not return that money to the stake.
sfraser-p40
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#7

Post by sfraser-p40 »

Thanks all for your help. From what I have read I will transfer funds from the missionaries that are no longer in the ward and no longer active to the General Ward Missionary fund. This zeros those accounts which can then be deacticvated.
Regarding the missionary who paid for his own mission up front that is impressive.
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kh_design
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Entering Ward Mission donations.

#8

Post by kh_design »

When I was finance clerk,some years ago, if the donation was made to the ward mission fund and not to a specific missionary the amount could be entered tabbing down without having to use the mouse to click through the ward mission donations.

Finance clerks know what I am talking about, when you get a ward mission donation for 1.00 and have to use the mouse to click through the ward mission to enter the 1.00 donation.

I was helping this past week (Fasting and Offerings Sunday) with donations and I noticed that ward mission donations can no longer be tabbed down when entering into the ward mission fund not to a specific missionary fund. Like most Ward/Branch units Fasting and Offerings Sunday is by far the largest donation week and we have a lot of donors who donate 1.00 or 2.00 to every category, the donation entry goes apace except for ward mission when the mouse has to be used. It is somewhat nettlesome the mouse has to be used. I was surprised that ward mission donations not to a specific missionary can no longer be entered in without using the mouse.

I am requesting that the donation entry for ward mission go back to how it was, not having to use the mouse if the ward mission donation is not being entered into a specific missionary fund. Has this been requested before?

Yes, I typed above Fasting and Offerings not just Fast, I could never figure out how a Sunday could be Fast.

The finance clerk was excited when I demonstrated how the Tab, Page Down, and Alt S could be used when entering donations, pay methods and saving the donation without having to use the mouse. It really kept the donation entry process apace, except for the above mentioned ward mission donations.
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Mikerowaved
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#9

Post by Mikerowaved »

kh_design, when you TAB down so Ward Missionary is highlighted, press the SPACE bar to open the pop-up submenu. From there you can enter a donation for the General Ward Missionary fund. If the donation is for a specific missionary, use the DOWN ARROW key to scroll down to the appropriate name and TAB over to enter the funds. When done, press CRTL-ENTER to close the pop-up.

Cheers,
Mike
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kh_design
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#10

Post by kh_design »

Great work around, still nettlesome, however the best we can do until MLS Ward Missionary donation entry is simplified back to how it was with the earlier MLS versions.
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